When it Isn't Actually a Cosplay
by Aurineko
Summary: When one goes to a convention, one expects to see people dressed as their favorite characters. What one doesn't expect is to actually meet the aforementioned characters, or to be dragged into the shadow realm. Auri didn't really see that one coming. SI
1. Chapter 1: Best Yugi Ever

When it Isn't Actually a Cosplay

Start Date: 6/14/10

Yes, this pretty much is a self insert. If you hate those, then kindly get lost; do not flame. Constructive criticism is awesome though. Also, I have not a beta, so please let me know if you see errors.

Edit note: I went back and read through only to find more errors I had missed. I hate when I do that.

Also, the use of ' indicates thoughts.

'Anime conventions', Auri decided, 'are the best things ever, but only until the panels run out and they kick you out of the game room.' Throngs of cosplayers and general convention goers scurried about or paused for photos on the floors below her. Auri was currently perched on a bench next to the balcony of the third floor walkway, her elbows resting on the railing as she looked down at the crowds below. Despite it being nearly 1:30 in the morning, the con goers were still going strong. She dug one hand into the Chobits messenger back at her side and fished out the copy of the con schedule. Holding it over the open expanse in front of her, she flipped to the page for Saturday night and scanned down the list.

'Bugger,' she muttered. 'There's nothing left save for the rave and the karaoke room.' She hmmed and turned around to sit properly on the bench before reaching into the bag again. Plucking out her phone, she scrolled through her contacts list and hit the call button on "sis." Regrettably, it went straight to voice mail. 'Ugh… she must still be in the rave, and I can't very well leave her here. When does the con shut down for the night again?' She glanced down at the schedule again. 'Three in the morning; great.' Auri sighed, leaning her head back on the bench and looked up through the skylights in the ceiling. 'Huh.' The rolling storm clouds that had hung over the town all day were gone. 'When did that happen? Oh well, at least it's safe to go out in search of munchies now. Blasted con facilities all shut down by, like, nine.' She got up and stretched for a moment before heading off to the elevator at the corner of the floor. As Auri turned the corner by the stairs to reach the elevator, she abruptly stopped, flung the phone and schedule back in to her bag and now reached for a new item. The target of her mad search? A camera.

Waiting at the elvator, and facing away from her, was the best Yugi cosplay Auri had ever seen. He wore the school uniform from season one, and he'd somehow managed to get his hair to flair up perfectly. Well, it looked to real too be a wig. Not only that, he was the right height! Her inner fangirl squeed happily. "Hi," she said cheerily.

He jumped slightly and spun around. "H-hello," he replied nervously. Now that she saw him from the front, she realized just how all out he'd gone with the cosplay. It wasn't just the outfit and the hair, he had violet contacts, the same face almost, and even a gold colored millennium puzzle. Funny though, he seemed oddly on edge.

"Your cosplay is awesome," Auri said with a grin. "How did you get your hair to do that?"

He relaxed slightly. "Um…thank you. The hair…" he paused again. "It's a secret."

Auri pouted. "Boo. Oh well." She shrugged. "You okay?"

"Huh?"

"You seem like something's bothering you," Auri clarified.

"Ah…well," he fiddled with the puzzle hanging from his neck on a rope for a moment before finishing his reply. "I've lost someone, and I've been looking all over for him."

"He wouldn't have gone back to a hotel room, would he?"

The cosplayer shook his head. "No."

"Hmm….What's he look like? Maybe I've seen him wandering around."

"Yugi" hesitated again. "He looks a lot like me, but he's a little taller and…"

"Oh! He's a Yami!" Auri interrupted. Her inner fangirl was most pleased at this. Now she could not only a Yugi but also a Yami piccie. Yeas!

The petite cosplayer's eyes widened. "Yes, but how did you know?"

Auri grinned at him. "Who else could you have meant?" At his dubious expression she added, "This is your first con, isn't it?"

He offered a small, sheepish smile. "Kinda."

She nodded knowingly. "That explains it then." The elevator doors at last dinged and opened with a soft hiss. "Let's go find your Yami then."

"You're coming with me?"

She stepped inside the elevator and held one hand in front of the sensor. "If you don't mind me tagging along. I've got an hour and a half to kill before I can drag my little sister home anyway."

This time he offered a real smile. "Thank you."

"No problem. I'm Auri."

He joined her in the elevator and Auri removed her hand from the sensor to allow the door to close. "I'm Yugi."

'As if I hadn't already guessed that from your outfit,' her inner sarcasm remarked as she hit the button for the first floor. Out loud she replied, "Shall we start with the first floor then?"

Yugi nodded. "Sure, but can I ask something."

"Shoot."

"Why are all the escalators shut off in this building?"

"Dunno, but it doesn't matter anyway."

"Hm?"

"Screw the stairs, we have elevators!" she declared cheerily.

Yugi just shot her a blank look.

"You're Yugi and you haven't seen the Abridged series?"

"The what?" he asked.


	2. YAMI GET!

Holy crud! People actually read it, and they liked it? (Does a little happy dance). Wow; I seriously didn't expect to get anything; I just started this on a lark to try and get my muses back in order. My non-fanfic story was kind of starting to eat my brain. Okay, so it maybe was just that writing it and my other projects stopped being fun somewhere along the way, so I decided to try writing something with no limitations. No minimum word limits, no overly obsessive chapter planning, just going with it.

You know, I think this is the first time I've really had fun writing something in months. And a huge part of it was the feedback. THANK YOU! Thank you: TalTal19, SkaleFlapper15, Holy Metal Muffin of Death, RiiOC, and AngelsGemini. If I had pocky, I would give you pocky.

Chapter 2: YAMI GET!

Stepping out of the elevator onto the first floor of the con, Auri adjusted the bag hung over her shoulder and grumbled internally about not having the sense to drop off her manga at the car earlier. 'Next time,' she decided, 'either limit yourself to a reasonable number to buy at once from the dealers room, or suck it up and brave the sticky heat outside.' She glanced over at "Yugi." 'Then again, at least I don't have it as bad as him. His cosplay requires him to wear long pants and a jacket in the middle of summer. Yick. At least I get to wear a t-shirt and long skirt; sooooooooo much comfier. Oh yeah, I was supposed to be looking for a "Yami." Oops.' Not seeing her target around the elevator, she motioned for Yugi to follow her and quickly lead the way through the crowd to the path overlooking the basement level. "Have you tried the video rooms yet? I don't think they're kicking people out of there yet."

"Video rooms?" he asked while weaving through people to keep up.

"Yeah," she replied over her shoulder. "The convention center is divided into four levels and each level into two halves. The first level, where we are now, has on the other side: three panel rooms, one video room, and the manga library. On this side is: the game room, the other three video rooms, and the obscenely large escalators leading down to the basement level." She motioned to the two escalators and the stairway between either one off the right hand side of the pathway balcony they were on. Checking to make sure he was still following, she ducked left around a Zack Fair complete with large black wings and paused at the first of the video room tables.

Yugi came up beside her a moment later. "Is it always this busy?" he asked.

She grinned. "You should have seen it this afternoon." Then she paused, her grin fading slightly. "When did you two get here anyway? If you just started, then you've missed nearly the entire con. There's still Sunday, but dang!"

He shifted under her gaze. "We had some…transportation issues."

"Ah." The girl nodded knowingly. "I had something like that my first year too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, stupid highway traffic. Anywho, wanna try this room?"

He nodded and followed as she entered room, pushing back the black curtain hung over the door. Inside, the lights were on and the lines of seats all empty, the projector already removed for the night as well.

"Next one?" he suggested.

"Yep." The pair left the room and continued down the hall to the next two video rooms find them both equally empty. Well, empty save for the two girls reading manga in the third room. They had been most insistent on getting a picture with Yugi before he and Auri could resume their quest. Auri just snickered at the embarrassed boy on the way out.

"Hehe. What did you expect by picking that costume?"

He simply offered an awkward shrug and quickly changed the subject. "Should we try the video room on the other side?"

She walked across to the balcony of the passage and leaned over a bit, up on her tiptoes, to look down at the food court below hoping to spy a mass of tri-colored hair. Failing to spy one, she settled back on her feet to look at Yugi who then stood next to her. "Yeah. I don't see him here, so that only leaves the karaoke room and the rave left open. Other than those two places, he could just be wandering around somewhere, so we might run into him somewhere anyhow. The karaoke room is right down there though." She pointed over the edge of the railing to a door under the far side of the escalators on the basement level. "We may as well try there first while we're here; it'll save us some time backtracking later."

"Right." The two made their way back down the hallway and had just turned left to make their way down the stairs to the food court when they heard it.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The high pitched squeal of doom. The sign that the end was near for any poor man that chose to dress up as someone just a little too pretty for their own good. It was…

"YAMI GET!" a girl directly below the staircase screamed followed by a surprised male squawk.

The cry of a rabid fangirl on the attack. Auri prayed for the poor, doubtless glomped-to-death, fool's soul. "That's not a good sign," she muttered.

Yugi's eyes widened fearfully. "We've got to help him!" he half yelled as he took the rest of the staircase at a near run, reaching the bottom and using the end of the railing to swing around and run under the stairs before Auri was even half way to the bottom.

'A tad overdramatic, don't you think?' she thought. 'It's not that they're going to kill him unless they love him to death or something.' Nevertheless, she did go a little bit faster down the stairs to catch up with Yugi around the other side of the base.

There, much to her amusement, was indeed a Yami cosplayer (also incredibly well done). The poor soul was currently trapped by two young girls clad in little more than mini skirts and skimpy tank tops who had seen fit to tackle him to ground, and then the girls seemed content to lie there while one hugged his chest and one his legs. Yugi stared aghast the scene, and Auri fought to muffle her giggles from behind him.

"What in the world? Are you alright, Yami?" Yugi asked as soon as he'd regained his senses.

From underneath the pile of girls, Yami managed to sit up and get a good look at Yugi. He let out a sigh of relief. "It is good to see you are well, Aibou." Of course, this also had a little bit of a side effect.

Now the girls noticed Yugi as well. The one around Yami's legs let go so she could get up and do a little happy dance. "There's both of them!" she cried happily. "You know what this means?" she asked her friend who yet remained attached to Yami.

The other girl smirked. "Puzzleshipping!" she declared.

Both Yami and Yugi were silent at this.

"I don't think they're familiar with that pairing," Auri said. 'Not that I don't approve. I was rather hoping to get a picture of something along those lines myself, but the Yugi cosplayer seems a little too…innocent for that perhaps.' Auri sighed. 'He's probably straight anyway. The straight ones never agree to pose for pictures like those.'

"That's a problem easily fixed," the girl still stubbornly attached to Yami replied. She smiled wickedly up at Yami; the young man paled in response.

"Please get off," Yami asked her.

"But I'm comfy!" she replied while hugging him tighter.

"You could always mind crush them," Auri suggested.

Yami froze.

Swallowing loudly, Yugi asked, "How do…he wouldn't…couldn't do that to them. They're just…"

"Fangirls?" Auri supplied.

"Yes."

Auri raised an eyebrow. 'Talk about being in character; kid knows how to act.' "Sorry. It was only a joke; I didn't mean to upset you."

He shook his head. "It's alright."

Auri eyed Yugi who certainly didn't look as if it really was alright. 'Shit. I really didn't mean to do that. Perhaps a hasty retreat is in order; I should at least help with escaping these two to make up for that, I suppose.' "If you're going to try and get a picture of that you might ought to let him go first," Auri suggested to the girl.

The miniskirt girl attached to Yami blinked, and then hurriedly let go to get up and brush off her skirt. "Good point; hey girl, can I borrow your camera for the piccie? Mine's out of film." She said to the other rabid fangirl.

"Sure, but I'm taking my own too," rabid fangirl number two replied while opening her purse to root through it for a camera.

'Chance!' While the girls were still distracted by the camera Auri scurried over to Yami and offered him a hand up. "Get ready to run," she whispered.

"What?" he asked, but he accepted the hand up anyway.

"Found it!" fangirl number two crowed.

Auri quickly pointed past the two girls towards the karaoke room. "Look," she insisted, "Seto Kaiba making out with Malik!"

"Where!" As both girls whirled around to look for the bishonen, Auri sped off in the opposite direction towards the food court, grabbing Yugi's hand and dragging him after her and trusting Yami follow them in the process. Dashing past the tables and through the crowds, Auri made a beeline for the rear exit doors at the far end of the basement level.

Shoving one of the heavy glass doors open and wincing at the thick wave of hot, humid air that hit her, Auri paused and looked back to check for the fangirls. Sure enough, they were making their way through the people mingling in the court.

"Damn they're persistent," Auri groused. "Let's go!"

Yugi looked to Yami, who had easily kept up it seemed.

Yami nodded.

"Lead the way," Yugi agreed. The three exited the convention center and took off up the street at a run with Auri guiding the pair. At first light she swung a left across the intersection, and midway through the next block she abruptly swung another left into an alley connecting prior street with a stretch of darkened shops hidden the edge of the city's downtown square. The square itself stared another block over to the north. Auri swung around the side of one shop's wall into a small crevice created by the huge store window and motioned for Yami and Yugi to hide with her. There they waited for a few minutes. When it became clear they had lost the crazy girls, both Yugi and Auri let out sighs of relief.

Auri plonked down on the low window ledge to rest. "That was crazy," she said with a slight laugh.

"No kidding," Yugi agreed as he sat beside her.

Yami remained standing and watchful. "Are there many of those girls around here?" he asked.

"I'm afraid so," she replied with a rueful smile. "Anime conventions tend to gather all of them within at least two hundred mile radius."

Yami twitched. "I would rather not have a repeat."

"By the way," Yugi interrupted. "What is, "Puzzleshipping?"


	3. What Drugs Are These People On?

I'm back again! Yeas for more reviews from peoples! As for the two questions I saw, yes, the other characters will be making appearances. As I told one reviewer, Bakura shows up really soon (chapter 4 actually), so please enjoy the fic.

Also, special thanks to: greenluver14, SkaleFlapper15, AngelsGemini, earthluva, and Charley Reede. Comments make authors happy and write faster; we like knowing that people actually read it (and love if they have suggestions). Also thanks to Yami No Musume and BeccaTheElf who didn't review, but they did put me on their fav lists. I'll take that as a, "Keep going."

Chapter 3: What Drugs Are These People On?

Auri fought desperately to contain the blush threatening to engulf her face. "Fangirl fantasies are so not something I want to discuss with guys. Especially when it happens to be one of mine! Eeks! Do not want!' "Isn't it obvious from the word?" she hurriedly replied hoping to buy time to figure out a way to change the topic.

Yugi rubbed the back of head lightly. "Ah, English isn't my first language, and I'm still not so good with slang."

'Topic change for the win!' she thought happily. "It isn't? What's your first one?"

"Japanese."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Neat! How long have you been studying English? I couldn't tell it isn't your native tongue at all; you don't have an accent as far as I can tell."

He smiled at that. "Since I was kid; I started learning from my Grandpa, and I've also been taking it in school too."

"Cool."

"How long do you intend to avoid answering the question," Yami interrupted.

Auri flinched. 'Busted.' "I wasn't avoiding it," she lied.

Yami stared icily.

She blanched at being put on the spot. "It's not important anyway!" she insisted while pushing herself to her feet and brushing off her skirt.

Yami moved in front of her to block her escape. "I think it is." A dark flash glowed in his red eyes for a few seconds.

Auri backed up slightly only to brush against the glass behind her. 'Whoa…wherever he got those contacts from, they were worth the money,' she thought while looking back at him with wide eyes. 'If I didn't know better, I would swear they just started glowing. It's kinda scary to look at.' Then she blinked. At some point during her internal rant about scary contact lenses, Yugi had risen to stand between herself and Yami.

"That's enough, Yami," he said. "You're scaring her."

Yami backed off slightly. "Yugi," he began, "We don't know yet if she's and enemy, and if she insists on hiding information concerning us then I've no choice but to conclude that it is at least possible that she is working for Bakura."

'Bakura? As in, "Yami Bakura?" Okay, this is offically taking the cosplay too far. Dangit Auri, why did you have to help the crazies?'

Yugi shook his head. "If she was evil and with him, then why would she help me find you and then save you from the fangirls?"

"It could be a ploy to gain our trust," Yami argued. "I would not put it past him; he did try something similar before. Not to mention it was his doing that brought us here, be it intentional or not."

Yugi deflated slightly at this. "But…she seems really nice."

Yami's gaze softened. "I'm sorry, but we must have the truth, Aibou. She knows much, too much for her to be a simple innocent in all this." His eyes shifted back Auri again, and she stiffened at the sharp, wary look. "There is also the matter of those two girls. They also knew who I was, but, even stranger, they did not seem at all surprised by the two of us. As long a time as it took your close friends to begin to notice the differences between us, they caught it right away. Also, neither they nor she seem at all surprised to see us separated."

"Of course none of us were surprised," Auri broke in indignantly. "You're cosplaying Yugi and Yami. This _is_ and anime convention after all; that's hardly abnormal, but you taking the whole, "in character," thing this far is. You're weirding me out now, so give it a rest."

"Cosplay?" Yami asked.

"It's when you dress up as a character or person you think is cool," Yugi explained. "Auri mentioned it before, and there were two other girls who thought I was doing that too. I figured they meant it because of the "King of Games" title. I've seen pictures online of people cosplaying Kaiba and Pegasas before anyway."

"Auri?"

Yugi pointed to the girl. "Her name."

"I see. However, that still doesn't explain how they knew my name. It has not been mentioned outside of your friends that I can recall, and there is also the matter of the Mind Crush. How is she so familiar with that spell?"

'Oh for the love of,' she growled mentally while reaching into her bag. 'This has gone on long enough.' "Look, I'm just going humor you and be done with it, so here." Auri pulled out one of the newly purchased mangas from the bag and handed to Yugi. "That is how I know. Ditto with those girls and thousands of other people too." 'There's also an anime that differs from the manga at points, but whatever.'

Yugi turned the book in his hands over to the front, and his breath caught in his throat. "Yugioh: Duelist, Volume One," was written on the front. Wordlessly, the suddenly very pale Yugi began to flip through it.

Yami's brow furrowed, and he moved next to Yugi to get a good look at it as well. "What….what is this?" the millennium spirit cosplayer asked.

"The Yugioh manga that your costumes are based off of, what else?" she growled. "_You're the ones dressed as them, not me_!"

"Is there more of this?" Yugi shakily asked.

She shrugged. "Sure. The first part of the Yugioh manga is just titled Yugioh, and it's seven volumes long. Yugioh: Duelist is what you have there, and it's the second part. There are twenty some volumes of that and then there's a third arc, but I forget the name. I only have through the end of Duelist Kingdom thus far though."

Yugi's head snapped up to meet her gaze. "Since when?"

Auri raised an eyebrow and pulled volumes two through eight out of her bag as well. "Dealers room at the con, and since sometime this afternoon."

"Then _everyone_ knows about my whole life?"

"Just what drugs are you on, anyway?" she asked crossly. "It's fiction!" All three were quiet for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked.

She rolled her eyes. "It isn't real." 'What else could I have meant?' "It's a story made up by Takahashi." Auri yanked the book out of Yugi's hands and pointed to the author's name on the cover. "See?" Yugi was silent.

"It would seem that Bakura has sent us much farther away than I thought," Yami murmured.

"Huh?" Yugi asked.

'Oh boy, here we go again.'

"I think that Bakura has dropped us into another world," said Yami.

"There are other worlds?" Yugi asked.

"He means the alternate dimension theory," Auri offered to which Yami gave her a startled look. "Basically, it says that an infinite number of dimensions, or worlds or realms or whatever you want to call them, all exist at the same time and space. They're just separated from each other by different planes of existence, so they don't overlap. The theory also goes that reason for the infinite number of worlds is due to the infinite possibilities for their creation."

"How does that work?" Yugi asked.

"Think of it this way," she began, "Let's say you went out for breakfast at a café, and you were trying to decide what drink to order. You can choose: coffee, milk, or orange juice. Pretend that you ordered the milk and the milk turned out to be bad and you got sick; that could be one world's timeline. In another one you might have chosen the coffee and been perfectly fine."

"Then, each person's choices…"

"…Are what create the possibilities for differing timelines and thus different worlds. Supposedly, there's a nexus point at which all worlds are joined at and spring from too, but it's just a theory," she finished.

"How do you know about that?" Yami asked.

"I'm a fan of science fiction," she answered with a shrug. "It comes with the territory." 'That, and I may have written a really bad fanfic about it before,' she added with a mental cringe. 'But they don't have to know that part.'

Yugi turned back to Yami. "Then we're in another world where we only exist in a story."

Yami nodded. "That's what I think."

"And I think you're both insane," Auri added while putting all the manga back in her bag. "It's just a theory; it can't be proven, and fiction is called "fiction" for a reason after all."

"But we're telling the truth!" Yugi insisted. "I really am Yugi Mutou!"

'If they're that insistent, then fine. I'm calling the bluff.' "Prove it," said Auri.

Yugi faltered. "I…I don't know how. Wait, Yami try summoning something!"

"Summon?" Yami asked.

Yugi nodded excitedly. "Yeah, you can do it the shadow realm battles using the millennium puzzle's magic. Maybe it also works in the real world!"

Yami frowned and looked at the puzzle. "I could give it a try." He reached down and pulled the deck of cards off the holder at his waist and sorted through them swiftly before pulling out one card and replacing the rest. He closed his and held the card in both hands.

At first, nothing happened. Auri was about to make a comment about her being right when the trademark eye of Horus appeared on Yami's forehead and the puzzle flared. She yelped and shut her eyes against bright light. After it faded, she slowly opened them again, blinking away the spots. Once the spots were gone, her gaze settled on small, brown ball of fluff in front of her. Floating. With little bitty claws and big, cuddly eyes.

"Kuri?" it voiced.

"Eep!" Auri fell back against the thick glass window. "N…no way." She looked back and forth between the two boys. "Is that really what I think it is?"

Yami nodded, a small smirk on his lips.

"Does he bite?"

This time Yugi laughed. "No, we aren't dueling so I'm sure he wouldn't bite you," he said as he petted Kuriboh.

'Holy crud. They were…telling the truth?' Slowly, Auri reached out with one arm to pat Kuribo on the head. He made a happy noise at the attention and leaned into her hand. She smiled softly and petted him. "He's real," she whispered in awe. "You're real," she said this time directed at the other two. Then she remembering her earlier comments she winced and withdrew her hand from Kuriboh's fluffy fur. "Sorry about calling you guys crazy."

"It's okay," replied Yugi. "I wouldn't really have believed it without proof either."

"My apologies for assuming you with Bakura," Yami added.

"No harm done," she replied, but then bit her lip. 'I suppose I still owe them an answer for the first question,' she thought while still gnawing on her lower lip, 'but this won't be pretty.' "Puzzleshipping refers to fanfiction that pairs you and Yugi together."

Yami just blinked.

"What?" Yugi asked.

Auri took a deep breath. "Shipping is when people pick two characters in series and pair them romantically in a fanfic. The Yugioh fanfiction base is really big, so people have made up names for all the different pairings. For example, peachshipping is when they pair Yugi and Anzu." Yugi blushed at that. "Puzzleshipping is when they pair the two of you up that way." Yugi's blush instantly faded, and there was a long, eerie silence as several expressions flitted across Yugi's face at rapid speed. Yami, by contrast, seemed contend to settle on a WTF look.

"They what?" Yugi shouted after his brain had rebooted. " But he's my partner! We're not that way all!" he insisted fervently.

"Indeed," the spirit agreed.

She offered them a look of pity. "See now, that's part of the reason they do it."

"Huh?" Yugi asked.

"You know how a lot of words in the English language have multiple meanings based on the context in which they're used?" she asked.

"Yes, and?"

"Partner can either mean a something along the lines of an ally or friend, or it can mean a…um…a lover."

"It does?"

"I'm afraid so. Also, you know how sometimes refer to Yami as your other half?"

Yugi groaned and rubbed on hand over his eyes. "Please tell me there isn't one for that too."

"Yep. Pretty much means the same thing actually. Hence the reason so many girls pair the two of you together; you give them a lot of out of context ammo, so probably around half your female fanbase thinks you're in love with Yami. Nevermind that the manga and anime both make it very clear you like Anzu." 'Doesn't mean we can't imagine it though…mmm…Yami making out with Yugi…' Yugi's blush returned in full force and he began stuttering something about everyone knowing about his love for Anzu and how embarrassing it was, but Auri really wasn't paying attention anymore.

"…And she doesn't even know yet!"

Auri blinked. Apparently, the conversation had continued while she indulged in shonen-ai fantasies. 'Mmmm…shonen-ai with hot bishonen…'

"Aibou, I'm sure it will be fine. There is no way for her to get here, much less read the series."

'Right. Anime characters to sort out. Focus, Auri! Focus!' She ignored the flustered Yugi and his Yami (who tried in vain to calm him down), and checked the time on her cell phone. It was 2:23. "You two wanna go get some munchies?" They, and the kuriboh, turned to stare at her. "What? I think better with munchies, and you can tell me how you wound up here with psycho-Bakura on your tail. Besides, if you two are separated, then he and Ryou probably are also. We may as well wander around and keep an eye out for him too." 'Please let Ryou be here, please let Ryou be here, please let Ryou be here!' her inner fangirl chanted with fingers crossed.

"You still want to help?" Yugi asked incredulously.

She tilted her head slightly to one side in confusion. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Bakura is dangerous," Yami told her firmly. "You could be killed or have your soul stranded in the shadow realm."

She shivered at the shadow realm part. "Yeah, but to miss the chance to watch you kick his ass? No way." 'Bakura is also hot; villain or no, he full of hotness. Ogling his hotness is now very high on my list of priorities.'

Yugi grinned at her (verbal) response. "Come on, Yami. Let her come with us for now; we don't know how to get around here anyway, so we need her help."

"Very well," Yami acquiesced with a soft chuckle.

"Great!" she cheered. "Follow me then, there's a 24-hour convenience store a few blocks from here."

As she turned and lead them out of the darkened shops one thing remained on her mind. 'It would be best to keep the one other detail about shipping from them for now. There are also pairings involving more than two characters, and they don't have to know about that one yaoi fic with Yami, Yugi, and Bakura.' Glancing back at the pair, she added, 'Yeah, he might really mind crush me for that one.'


	4. Into the Darkness

Hey, I'm back! I'm so sorry this is incredibly late (hides behind shield); don't hurt me! I have a good reason for being so late…okay several reasons. One, my school is back in session (year round) so I'm working two jobs again. Two, I've had a bunch of interviews for regular teaching positions (crossing fingers in hope). And then there's the third, and final, reason. P3P (Persona III for the PSP). Seriously, if you have a PSP and you don't have this game, GET IT NOW! (If you only have a PS2, then get the PS2 version; same plot and awesomeness, but you can only be a guy in the original). It is full of awesome and has sucked all my spare time into its abyss. However, I'm into the last month of the game, and there's a whole lot of power leveling staring me in the face now. So, yeah. I'm taking a break from that to get back to the fic. Just a heads up, expect me to disappear again for a few weeks when the new Golden Sun comes out (provided they ever manage to stop pushing back the release date that is). My apologies in advance.

In other news, we have new people adding the fic to their fav/story alert list (happy dancing). Welcome: DarknessPwnsLight, WildCards.x, Sylanc, SangNoire, Kitsune Barra Hime, DreamerNumber3, Spirit01, Miss-Berry, ShadowFireFox13, earthluva, and Yami No Musume! If I missed anyone's name, let me know and I'll fix the list.

To the reviewers…

YAMI'S BIGGEST FANGIRL: Not the puppy eyes! Such a powerful evil force to unleash. As such, BEHOLD more fic for you (though it took me a month…). As for your question from your review of chappie one, I have no plans to add additional OC's at this time. I'm considering a sequel after this is finished, so I might then (will post a notice if such occurs).

BeccaTheElf: I am glad that you still approve of the fic. Sadly, this chapter has a lot of exposition. I had to get it out of the way sooner or later; there will be lots of funny when Auri gets to meet Ryou in a couple chapters though (evil grin). I am looking forward to writing that part sooooooooo much.

TalTal19: Hooray, more happy reviews (renewed dancing). And yes, Auri gets to ogle Bakura's hotness in this chapter. She is most pleased.

Charley Reede: Thankies! Inner fangirl is fun to write. Let us all be true to our inner fangirls (or fanboys if there are any males reading this).

Spirit01: More new people (getting tired from all the dancing now)! Fic for you now.

Miss-Berry: I will do my best.

Earthluva: I think I may have already replied to your comment, but, again, DON'T HURT ME (hides). I didn't write the YugixYamixBakura fic (I did read it out of sheer curiousity though…and then needed some mind bleach. I like shonen-ai as much as the next rabid fangirl, but that was too much for me. Can't recall where I found it though; twas years ago.).

Lastly, does anyone else listen to music while writing? If you do, give "Persona REINCARNATION" or the standard Persona 3 and 4 soundtracks a try. They're what I've been writing all of these to thus far.

Chapter 4: Into the Darkness

As Auri led the pair and their Kuriboh around a corner, she stopped abruptly and held up a hand motioning for the other two to stop. Then she cautiously peeked around the corner to double-check that there were indeed no fangirls nearby. Upon seeing that the coast was clear, she gave the pair behind her a thumbs-up before walking out onto the well-lit sidewalk of Racine St. Racine, being part of the downtown Raleigh area, was still remarkably busy at this time of night. Namely, it was busy in that it had any foot traffic at all. Cars? Sure. There were some clubs a few blocks away, so there were always those. However, foot traffic typically was non-existent by then; of course, there was a large convention nearby, so con-goers roamed the streets now as the events they came for ended for the evening. How would she be so well acquainted with the downtown traffic in the middle of the night? Let's just say that her older sister was always a bad influence.

Turning back to face the others, Auri quickly realized they might have a problem. Then she grinned. 'That's easy enough to fix.' "Kuriboh, you mind being carried?" she asked.

Kuriboh made a happy face. "Kuri!"

Her grin widened. "I'll take that as a 'no,' then," she replied while holding her arms out. Kuriboh happily jumped in and she petted him with one spare hand.

"I guess it would look kind of weird to other people if they saw him floating," Yugi said.

Auri nodded. "Such was my thought." She looked down at the Kuriboh. "You have to be still when we're inside a place or people go by, okay? Pretend to be stuffed animal."

"Kuri."

Satisfied with the response, Auri nodded and shifted Kuriboh to her left arm to point down the street a ways. "We need to go two blocks up this way and then turn right. The store is another block down on the corner, so… follow me, I guess." With that, Auri led the way down the block pausing at the first light to press the crossing light button. While they waited for it to change, she asked, "So how did you get here exactly?"

"We had only just returned from Duelist Kingdom this evening," Yugi began. "We got back and went to see Grandpa in the hospital to make sure his soul was put back okay." Yugi paused awkwardly before then asking, "You said you read through the end of Duelist Kingdom so you would know about his soul being put in a card, right?"

She nodded, her eyes not meeting his. Instead she focused her gaze on the blinking light across the street as it slowly counted down to when they could cross. "I've read through the end of the battle with Pegasus where Kaiba and Mokuba are also shown has having recovered, and then everyone hitched a ride on his helicopter to get home. I haven't seen anything after that though," she answered, fighting to keep her voice and facial expression as even as possible. 'Truth be told, I've read through the entire series via online scanlations. They've just been really slow on releasing the manga here in the US though, so Duelist Kingdom is as far as I've gotten in owning the series. I don't know how much I could risk telling them without screwing up the timeline though; the last thing I want to do is get them killed," the last part she added with a wince. 'Never mind that I've also seen most of the anime though similar means.'

"We checked on him, and he was doing well," Yugi continued, this time with Auri facing him. "The hospital wanted to keep him for one more night for observation just in case though. After that, I went home and passed out on the couch."

Auri noticed that Yami seemed to wince slightly at that. 'Huh?' "Exhausted from everything with the duels I take it?"

"Yeah," Yugi agreed with a weary nod. "And it was such relief that everyone was okay in the end," he added with a soft smile. Meanwhile, Yami seemed to have suddenly found the ground to be quite interesting.

'What's wrong with…oh.' The scene from the battle where Yugi's soul appeared to have died sprang to her mind. 'I suppose he would guilt himself over that given his self appointed role as Yugi's protector since volume one. Maybe I can talk to him about it later; I mean, Yugi's okay and it wasn't his fault.' She glanced back at the intersection and the now lit walk light. "It's clear, let's go."

"Yeah," Yugi said as he and Yami began to follow her again. "Anyway, the next thing I knew I was separated from Yami in some kind of maze in the shadow realm," Yugi finished before looking to Yami to fill in the gap.

"Bakura, or the spirit of the ring as it were, appeared at the game shop shortly after Yugi fell asleep and challenged me to a shadow game." His jaw tightened slightly, and he looked over at Yugi, "I didn't want you dragged in to another battle so soon while you were still resting, so I took over without waking you. I apologize."

His shorter host shook his head. "It's okay; you were only trying to help, and we're both okay. That's all that matters."

Yami's frame slackened slightly in relief. "Thank you. After that, he dragged us both into the shadow realm where a maze created by his magic waited, and I found myself dropped into one corner of it seemingly at random. That was when I realized that he'd somehow managed to separate the two of us, and Yugi was nowhere in sight. Bakura failed to explain the rules prior, but it became rather obvious what the goal was then."

"To find Yugi, right?" she asked while moving to the left to avoid a couple coming their way.

Yami nodded. "Yes, but was not simply that. Bakura was playing as well; I had to beat him to Yugi."

'Not to mention the unfortunate side effect the shadow realm has on people in that it slowly drains them before shattering their souls,' Auri thought. 'Poor Yami; he must have been worried sick about having a repeat of the previous episode….Wait!' "But can't Bakura track the millennium items with his ring?" Auri interrupted.

Both boys shot her a surprised look. "They even show that in the manga of yours?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, so wouldn't he have an unfair advantage?"

"Correct." Yami said. "It was not long in to the game that I came to the same conclusion, and cheating voids any dark game challenge as, I am sure, you are well aware."

'Yeah, considering that's all the villains from part one seemed to do,' she internally growled as the trio came upon the second intersection. This time the street was completely clear on the right hand turn they needed, so she didn't bother to stop and wait for the walking light. 'Jay walking for the win.' "I take it you didn't get to hit him with a punishment game like the others though."

The puzzle spirit frowned. "No. He refused to call it off, so I tried using the puzzle's magic to rip holes in the maze to find Yugi before Bakura or the shadow realm could harm him. However, something went wrong." He paused, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. Auri and Yugi halted after a moment, turning to look back at him.

"What's wrong?" Yugi asked him.

Yami looked up at them. "I can not remember."

"Huh?"

"How hole in the dimensions was opened," he clarified. "I remember trying to break through the labyrinth, but nothing after that before awakening in the building from earlier."

Auri hmmed distractedly in response before perking up at the sight of the lit convenience storefront up ahead. "Maybe it was just shock of being ripped into another world," she suggested, and then Auri pointed to the store coming up on the right. "Anyway, that's the place I told you about."

It was an older building like most of this sector of town with a faded, stone façade and a mesh net fitting over the windows. The inside bore similar signs of age: battle scarred black and white tiles, thick trails of dust in the window's cracks and corners, and the wooden counter was stained a dark brown from countless spills. Nevertheless, Auri waved a nonchalant hello to the sleepy clerk and quickly led Yugi and Yami around to the back in search of caffeine. Without pausing, she opened one frosty glass door and pulled out a Cheerwine.

"Grab whatever you'd like; this one's on me," she said.

Yugi offered her a thankful grin. "Thanks." He eyed the refrigerator. "Where's the Coke at?" he wondered aloud.

"Over here," she replied pointing to the door next to him.

"I see it now," he said while pulling the glass door to and grabbing two of the sodas.

Meanwhile, Auri had already moved on to the chip section and snagged a Pringle snack pack. "You guys want any munchies?" she asked, leaning over to poke around the corner of the aisle to look at the pair.

Yugi looked to Yami who simply shook his head. "No thanks," he replied.

She shrugged. "If you're sure."

After paying, the trio returned to the outside, Auri making a face at the thick blanket of heat that hit her after so enjoying the air-conditioned store. Settling down on the bench next to the door, she moved Kuriboh to sit on her lap and opened her soda. "Caffeine is the true nectar of the gods," she declared happily. 'That, and bishonen. Near twins at that. Yeas!'

"That it is," agreed Yugi as he sat beside her and handed Yami, who remained standing next to them though leaning against the wall, his soda.

She simply grinned, happy to at last have her fix, and popped open the Pringles. She plucked a few out for herself and then offered the can to Yugi who declined with a wave. She shrugged and then looked down at the Kuriboh. "Can duel monsters eat?"

Yugi just blinked.

"I…do not see why not," Yami answered. "However, I do not think Kuriboh has a mouth." All three looked at Kuriboh.

"Kuri?" it offered.

"I don't see one," Yugi said.

"Neither do I," Auri agreed. "Sorry, Kuriboh, no chips for you."

"Kuri…" The fluff ball made a sad face. She petted him in consolation with the hand not devoted to the yummy Pringle goodness.

After finishing his soda, Yugi asked, "Do you come here a lot?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "That was random."

He flushed slightly. "It was just that you seemed really familiar with the store and the whole area."

"Ah." Auri's expression fell. "Well, I live in the next town over, but I've been coming to the con here for the past several years with my friends. We got tired of the overpriced con fare and went wandering the first year, and we continued to do so when nothing good was going on for every year after that. It's kind of a tradition now." A soft smile made it back to her face before vanishing as she continued. "They couldn't come this year though, so it's my first time by myself." She shook her head. "Okay, not completely alone; my little sister tagged along for a little while. This was her first year, but she hooked up with her buddies from school a good bit of time ago."

"So that's why you were alone up on the third floor then, huh?" Yugi replied, though it was more of a comment than a question.

She grimaced. 'Guilt…' "Yeah. Sorry if I kind of forced you into letting me tag along initially; I was kind of lonely."

"It's okay; you were a big help. It probably would have taken much longer to find Yami without a guide, and then there were those crazy girls."

The spirit in question shuddered in remembrance of their madness.

"Aw come on, they worst they could really do is hug you to death," she told him with a laugh while fishing her phone out of the bag at her side. The time read, "2:47." 'Crud, the dance ends at three and I need to get Grace then, but how am I going to explain these two to her? I can't just leave them here, and Mom would flip if I randomly brought two guys she's never met home with me in the middle of the night.' She frowned at her phone. 'Burn that bridge as I come to it, I suppose.' Stuffing the phone back into place and hoisting the bag over her shoulder, she said, "You want to head back towards the con now? I need to grab my little sister, and maybe the fangirls have retired for the night or something."

"Sure," said Yugi.

Yami agreed with a curt nod and pushed himself off of the wall. "Hopefully we can locate Bakura as well; we cannot simply leave him in this world. Who knows what kind of havoc he would wreak," Yami said.

'Aside from thievery, probably not that much,' she thought. 'He's only after the millennium items and a misguided revenge quest against you, so I can't imagine he'd be interested in too much here. Wait, do they know how to get back?'

"You can get us back home?" Yugi asked, unintentionally voicing Auri's thought.

The spirit hesitated initially before answering. "Perhaps. I can sense the shadow realm here too, and, theoretically, it should be possible to get back through the same dimensional rip we came through. It ought not to heal that quickly."

Yugi let out a huge sigh and his face lit up with a smile. "Thank goodness! I was starting to wonder how we'd get home."

Auri brushed off her skirt and stood up. "Anywho, shall we head back?"

Seeing as the trio no longer needed to worry about dodging the girls from earlier, Auri lead the two boys down a more direct return route aiming for the main entrance of the Raleigh Convention Center. They went back the one block the convenience store was on, and turned right. Auri led the pair three blocks that way before stopping in the middle of the block and scanning back and forth for cars.

"Why did we stop?" Yami asked.

She pointed across the street at a small pathway created by a mini plaza…tree thingy… in a gap between two stores. Okay, Auri didn't really know what the heck it was there for; it really seemed like a waste of space to her, but, hey, shortcut back to the con, right? She turned back to Yami. "The main entrance is right through there."

"Oh." Abruptly, his eyes widened slightly, and Yugi who stood beside him gasped slightly.

"What?" she asked with head tilt before turning to see what the big deal was.

Across the street, at the maw of the darkened shortcut now stood Bakura, his millennium ring's glow fading. He glared darkly at them from across the intersection; his pulled into a taut frown. "It's about time," he called from across the street as a few cars lazily cruised by. "What do you say we finish the little game from before, hm?" As he said this, a few passing cosplayers stopped to watch curiously.

Yami moved to stand protectively in front of Yugi. "You must be out of your mind to think I would accept a game with such stacked odds knowingly," he shot back.

Amidst this, Auri's brain momentarily shut down. Unconsciously, her arms tightened around the poor Kuriboh.

'Oh my god, it's Kura! Frigging Bakura!' her inner fangirl squealed before running around in happy circles inside Auri's head.

'No!' interrupted logic from one itty-bitty corner of her brain. 'We need to focus right now! That's real Bakura and…'

'I know! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

'…And he could totally kill you! He would probably enjoy it actually.'

'Shush. Let me enjoy my moment before someone expects us to pay attention again.'

'But…

'Look at is hair! Look at is bishonen self!'

Against her own will, Logic looked. 'Hmm…. He is rather yummy.'

'Hehe.'

Auri was brought back to reality as Bakura humphed disconcertedly before a wicked smirk played across lips. "Your hikari can last for a time in the dark, but what about your new friend?"

The pair in front of her said nothing.

'I don't like the sound of this.'

"The shadow realm quickly devours those within its grasp who lack the means to defend themselves, the power of the millennium items!" The eye of his ring began to glow again, and Auri suddenly found that the ground beneath her seemed to envelop her as she began to fall down a seemingly endless dark hole.

Yami spun around, his eyes wide with horror, and tried to reach her. However, she was already falling too fast. As she looked up at him, her vision blurring, she thought she heard him yell something back to Bakura but couldn't.

She was already too far gone.

For my faithful readers, you are awesome! I love reviews and they compel me to write more. As such, I have a little bitty spoiler for you all, the titles of the next two chapters.

Chapter 5: Welcome to the Shadow Realm

Chapter 6: HOLY SHIT, IT'S RYOU!


	5. Welcome to the Shadow Realm

Author's obligatory warning: from this point on there will be MASSIVE SPOILERS for the series (both anime and manga), so if you haven't finished watching/reading them you might want to do that. If you haven't finished the series, but simply don't care about spoilers, then cool. Read on.

Granted, there aren't any major spoilers in this chapter (as it's relatively short), but the next few chapters will (courtesy of Auri's thoughts). The next chapter will be much longer, I promise. This one needed to be short; dragging it out would have been silly, and that's not my style anyway. You have been warned.

Anyway, we have two new readers. Welcome sasusaku-rulez-2001 and sarahlovesbakura! Yay for new readers!

For the reviewers:

Sasusaku-rulez-2001: Hehe. I'm glad you like it. Hopefully this chapter will be well received as well.

Miss-Berry: (flushes) Thank you for your kind words. This chapter isn't quite as rushed, but then it kind of wrote itself in one sitting. No Bakura today though (sorry). Don't worry, he will return in all his bad ass glory soon enough (evil grin).

Earthluva: Yes, she is a major Bakura fangirl (also rabid for Ryou; darn his cute British accent!). If it weren't for the fact that Bakura was way across the street and he was in his I'm-evil-and-I'm-gonna-kill-you-all-mode she would totally have thrown caution to the wind and glomped him. But, you know, there was the Bakura stabbing her or mind crushing her threat; although what he did was in some ways far worse. I am also glad to have caused you a fit of the giggles; that means I got the effect I was going for with the last scene, woot! Sadly there is much less humor in this chapter (she is stranded in the shadow realm, but there is a little bit). The funny shall return in the next chapter when she meets Ryou. Also, feel free to continue to write long reviews, I like feedback.

YAMI'S BIGGEST FANGIRL: …SOMEONE's been drinking Sugar Addict's Dream, haven't they? (laughs) I'm glad you still enjoy the story though. I'm a little confused by what you mean by, "a lot of people write the characters out of personality." Also, look! An update! You don't need to send me to the shadow realm now (please don't, I tried to write it as creepy as possible as I'll be using it again later). And yes, Yami is hot. No arguments there…Thief King Bakura is hotter though. Have you seen piccies of him from the Ancient Egypt arc? YUM.

Hrm…there were way fewer people this time (only four people). Did they just not like this one as much, or did they not feel like reviewing? Review, please (sad puppy eyes)?

The other note is that the official theme for this chapter is, "Backside of the TV" from the Persona 4 soundtrack. You should totally listen to it on while reading this; the entire chapter was written while listening to that song (it seemed appropriate; although I had to replay the song many, many times).

Chapter Five: Welcome to the Shadow Realm

Everything HURT.

It wasn't a, "mauled in a car crash kind of hurt," so much as an, "OMG, I pulled every muscle in my body last night doing SOMETHING, and I have a hangover." Such was the first thing Auri became aware of. The second was a crushing weight upon her chest making each breath a fight to take in so much as a shallow gasp. As consciousness returned, she opened her eyes to find herself curled up in a ball on what seemed to the ground. Slowly prying open her eyes, she uncurled herself and managed to push herself to a sitting position, swaying slightly as she did so from an unexpected dizzy spell. Leaning forward, she supported herself with one arm propping her up and the other rubbing her eyes. After a few moments, the dizziness faded to a bearable level, and Auri lowered her right hand from her eyes. It took a moment for her vision to fully clear, but, when it did, she rather wished it hadn't.

'I am so screwed,' she thought with an abrupt, shaky intake of breath.

The ground was flat, unnaturally so. In fact, it stretched on in all directions endlessly, _completely in this manner_, far beyond what the human eye could ever reach. It wasn't dirt either; the earth beneath Auri felt more like concrete; it had no give to it. However, this wasn't what really scared Auri, it was the dark. The darkness here was absolute, infinite, and unending. It went on forever in all four cardinal directions, and above into…the sky? Craning her head up to squint at the space above her, Auri wasn't sure she should call it a sky. She couldn't make out a ceiling of any kind, but it wasn't a sky either. There weren't any stars, clouds, or anything save for the occasional purple balls. The small purple orbs scattered about were the only source of light there, but the glow they emitted was a dark thing; it did little more than allow Auri to make out the hand in front her face for the most part.

There didn't appear to be any kind of weather either, she noted. There was a thick, hazy mist that permeated the area except, interestingly enough, for the area within one foot of where she sat. Yet, there was no wind to push it around either. It just sat heavy and threatening just outside of her arm's reach, unmoving but for swirling slightly with each breath she took. Not that she was tempted to poke it anyway. It did feel, however, like the gravity was far stronger there than on Earth, hence the weight she felt on her lungs. Well, it wasn't so much gravity as it was just the air that was heavy.

"Welcome to the shadow realm, Auri," she murmured.

She bit her lip. "Yami?" she called hopefully. "Yugi?"

Her calls echoed back for a while, but there was no other response. It was then that she realized just how quiet everything was without so much as a simple breeze. A world silent save for her shallow breathing and the pulse within her veins.

It was just…wrong.

Beginning to panic, she cried, "Yami! Yugi! Come on, you guys! …Please?" Her voice died off at the end and her shoulders slumped. "Someone…please get me out of here," she whispered. 'Ye gods… no wonder Yugi nearly died in the battle against Pegasus. He had to feel like this and support several monsters as well? Damn,' she thought, now with a greatly increased respect for the duelist.

"Kurioh?" she tried, glancing around again. Then she stiffened. 'Wait, wasn't he with me when Bakura pulled a friggin Trap Hole on me? Or it looked kind of like the Trap Hole effect…' Auri thought back to the events just before she lost consciousness. Yami had stood between Yugi and Bakura (who was across the street being his menacing self), and Auri stood a little off to the side of the two boys. Kuriboh, she remembered, had indeed been in her grasp at the time Bakura caught her. She also made a mental note to put the millennium ring in a microwave should she ever get the chance.

'So then, where is Kuriboh?' she mused. "I guess I should try to look for him. It isn't as though staying here will do me any good." She pushed herself to her feet on wobbly legs, and shook her head again in an attempt to clear some funny black spots from her vision. The black spots were new. They were also quite fuzzy. 'Almost cute.'

She blinked twice at the bizarre thought. 'That can't be good. Focus, Auri!'

Picking a random direction, Auri slowly wandered hoping to find someone or something, preferably not an angry spirit or unfriendly duel monster; she'd had enough of the former for one day. 'Being smexy,' she growled, 'excuses you from a lot of things, but not sending me to Ra damned shadow realm. Ryou is now officially my favorite bishonen instead. Screw Bakura!'

Her inner fangirl was oddly silent at that at first. 'You know why he does it though,' she said sadly. 'You've seen how this all ends; can you still truly hate him after that? No one deserves what he went through or what end awaits him.'

Logic paused as Auri continued to wander on autopilot. 'I do, yeah. But let's be honest, _he tried to kill us!_ He may very well succeed if we don't find the others soon anyway. I don't know how long a normal human can last in this place; the dizziness is starting to get worse as it is. Black fuzzies anyone?'

Fangirl flinched and looked away, but offered no reply.

Pulling herself back to reality, Auri stopped and nearly fell over. For an instant, her vision had completely blacked out. Now truly freaking out, she again called out, "Yugi? Yami?" Her voice was weaker than before and tinged by a croaky edge.

A faint breeze ruffled the hair at her back. Eyes wide, she whirled around to investigate, but her sight failed her again and the ground felt like it was spinning underneath. Hitting the ground face first, she almost thought she could make out the dull thuds of footsteps in the distance.

Yes, I am going to leave you there for now…because I'm evil. Muahahaha…

Also, yes, by Trap Hole I mean the card. I have it in my deck from back when I played Yugioh. Ah, old favorites.


	6. Holy Shit, It's Ryou!

I'm back again! And so we return to see what's been happening to Auri since she lost consciousness…and to RYOU! Yes, he finally gets his introduction as I promised.

Okay, first I have to apologize for vanishing for over a month with no warning. Sorry! Crazy stuff going on. Drove nine thousand miles going to interviews everywhere over a few weeks (was going on around the time chap 5 came out, and, no, I'm not exaggerating on the mileage), and then it finally happened. I GOT A TEACHING POSITION! Woot! It was also…uh…less than a week before school started. So, yeah. Next to no prep time, none of the new teacher orientation, and I had to move that same week. Like I said, crazy. Then again, that was nothing compared to the first two weeks of school. Holy cow… Things are slowly settling a bit, and I've (at last) got the laptop they promised me (loan), so I have a computer again. Yea, you may again expect updates (at the very least once every two weeks). They'll get faster again as time goes on (still settling in, as I said). But I REALLY owed you guys this chappie, so here you go. SORRY (hides behind a rock).

Next, we have more new readers (is happy). Greetings keyballad109, Sentariana, AkumaRisu, SariaHael, and echochaos!

To my reviewers:

Earthluva: fear no; Kuriboh isn't gone (I'll explain that in this chapter). He's too cute to kill off, right? Also, you're correct if I'm guessing correctly about who you think it was at the end, but that won't play out for quite some time yet (yes, I'm going to leave guessing for like 20 chapters, I'm that evil. Hehe.). Also, you wouldn't really switch to being Malik's fangirl, right? I mean, everyone knows Bakura is infinitely hotter than him…even if Bakura can be more on an evil ass at times. Anywho, enjoy the Ryou content.

Sasusaku-rulez-2001: I hear you on the four in the morning thing; I do that way too often with the writing; once I really get going I kind of loose track of time. Oops. Also, I'm glad you liked the chappie regardless of its length.

Echochaos: Greetings; I am happy you like the story thus far! You know, I think you must be like…the fifth person thus far to say they don't usually dig OC/self-insert fics but that this one doesn't suck thus far. It's nice to know I've succeeded in keeping Auri from becoming a Mary-sue; that was my goal…especially since Sephira (not her name) will rip me in half and eat my soul if I do. I kid you not; the conversation with her when I told her I was doing this went something like this (posted on livejournal about it and then talked to on the phone a couple of days later):

Aurineko: Greetings.

Sephira: I'LL KILL YOU!

…Yeah… She was mad both that I took a break from my novel and also that I'd committed the hidden 8th sin, writing a self-insert. She's not a fan of them, but there are some really good ones out there if you look (there are several in my favorites/favorite author list, but you might have to look for a while to find them. The list is kind of long…). I had to swear to her that: Auri doesn't have a millennium item, isn't related to any of the cast, and that I have no intention at this time of pairing her up with ANYONE before she agreed to reserve judgment (i.e. murder me). (Scrolling back up momentarily) Er…didn't intend for that to turn into a rant…oh well. Please enjoy the chapter.

SkaleFlapper15: Ah. I understand. Hoorays for being able to read/review now though, yes? Tis a good thing.

SariaHael: Hm…. The discussion of such pairings is one thing I've actually discussed with the friend mentioned earlier. I'd love to do it, but I need to find a way to do that won't involve Auri being stabbed to death immediately afterward. That would be a rather lame ending. If you truly wish it to happen, give suggestions.

Soundtrack for this chapter: Persona 3 Reincarnation – Changing Seasons

Chapter 6: HOLY SHIT IT'S RYOU!

Awareness came back to Auri slowly this time, and it did so with considerably less pain. In fact, she noted happily that she didn't hurt anywhere with the sole exception of a light headache. She was very glad to not be dead; the not-being-dead was a good thing. Also, she could make out the faint murmur of an AC and the occasional squeak of a cart's wheels in the background. There being any noise at all meant she wasn't trapped in the shadow realm.

'Okay,' she thought blearily, 'I'm not dead, so Yami must have won. Where am I now?' Cracking one sleepiness-crusted eye, she stared at the ceiling for a full minute until her vision sorted itself out, but it wasn't like there was much to see. It was a blank white. 'Boring.' She opened the second eye and slowly eased herself to a sitting position and rubbed the crusty bits out of one eye while she looked around. She was seated on a plain bed with metal bars on one side, and an IV popped in one arm. The room had beige walls in dire need of a new paint job, and old, faded chairs on one side with various medical equipment lining the other side. In the chair closest to the bed sat Yugi who seemed absorbed by whatever homework he was doing, or Auri thought it was homework. It looked like a textbook.

"Hey," she said to him.

His head shot up and relief flooded his face in response to her. Letting out a small sigh, he placed the books on the table next him and stood next to Auri's bed. "Are feeling okay?" he asked with a soft smile.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied with a slightly hoarse voice. 'I'm a little dizzy, but it's nothing to worry him over.' "What happened? How'd I get here?"

Yugi turned his head to look at the IV bag next to her. Unwilling to meet her eyes, he answered, "Yami beat Bakura, but this time it was in a duel monsters game to keep it fair. Yami managed to go back to the puzzle after that so he wouldn't need use additional energy to protect me from the shadow realm, and then he went looking for you."

'Sounds about right, so why won't you look at me?' "And he obviously succeeded," she said out loud. "So it's all okay."

At that, the young duelist's eyes screwed shut and he clenched one fist. "No, it isn't okay!" he half shouted, perhaps at least attempting to control his volume in the hospital. "We couldn't find you anywhere, and we would have given up hope if Kuriboh hadn't found us and shown the way."

Auri's eyes lit up. 'Ah-ha! That's where the little fuzz ball vanished to. I owe him much petting.'

"…But we were nearly too late," he continued, his eyes open again but now fixed on the floor. "You weren't breathing by the time Yami got to you, and your heart had stopped by the time you were at the hospital. They almost didn't get it going again! You…" He paused, his voice choking. "You almost died!"

'I….I….what?' All the color drained from her face. 'D…damn. I knew it could happen, but I didn't really think it seriously would. She swallowed thickly and stared at her hands in her lap, trying to restrain the urge to wring them nervously. "Fuck," she whispered.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized. "This is all my fault; if you hadn't been with Yami and I, Bakura wouldn't have…"

"What?" she asked, interrupting him with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry."

She raised one eyebrow. "Why are you apologizing?"

"It was…" he started, now looking her in the eye again.

"No," she told him sharply with one finger held up in his face, "It wasn't your fault he attacked me; he chose to do so, so blame him. Besides, I wanted to come along even though I knew the risks." 'I just didn't take them seriously.'

"But…"

"But nothing!" she harrumphed with both hands on her hips trying to look indignant. "It was my fault, so there shall be no guilting of yourself or…or…" She looked around quickly and grabbed the pillow from behind her and held it in a mock-threatening grip. "Or I'll beat you with my Pillow of Doom!"

He stared at her, and then he broke down laughing.

"Oh come on," she half-heartedly insisted while struggling to contain her own giggles. "It's a big pillow, I bet I could get your whole head with it." 'Ridiculous hair included.'

Yugi chuckled and shook his head disbelievingly. "If you're sure…"

Auri nodded firmly. "Yep." She shrugged. "The mess is at least half my fault anyway. So, what else did I miss? How long have I been out?"

The duelist hmmed and looked up for a moment before looking back at her. "To answer them in order, you already know what happened in the shadow realm and how we got you here. After that we, Ryou and I, sort of," he paused to get up and check the hallway before sitting back down in the earlier chair and resuming his tale causing Auri to raise an eyebrow. "We had some medical background and identification papers forged for you."

'WHAT?'

"The hospital had to have something," he continued nervously. "And all I knew was your first name, and you didn't have an ID in your things when the hospital checked them."

"S'okay," she said. 'Although why they couldn't have just told them my name and waited for a missing persons check I don't know.' "But… you said you and _Ryou_ forged them?" 'Ten bucks says it was really Bakura; sounds more like him than his hikari.'

"Yes. It was Ryou's idea actually. I have to admit, it surprised me too. It mostly wasn't us though; Ryou suggested we call Mokuba and ask him to use his resources to come up with the papers. We just gave him info that sounded right. I also explained what happened to Ryou, and he took it remarkably well. I'm not sure he fully believed me, but he understands your situation mostly."

Auri was silent. Then, "Mokuba?"

Yugi offered a relieved grin. "Yeah, I didn't completely expect him to help, but he said he wanted to repay the favor for helping out in Duelist Kingdom."

"Mokuba?"

"Um, yeah. Why do…" A knock at the door interrupted him. "Oh, come in."

The hospital room door slid open on a well oiled hinge, and in stepped the white haired bishonen from the earlier conversation himself. One of them anyway. Auri sucked in a sharp breath, not yet risking a comment.

The British teen was dressed in the same as in season one for the few times one saw him in the school. Meaning to say, he was wearing the blue school uniform with, unlike Yugi, the jacket buttoned up. Softly, spiked long hair and creamy chocolate eyes completed his appearance. Noting that his hair wasn't all spiked up like rabbit ears, Auri relaxed.

'Okay, so he's not Kura right now. I hope.' "H…hi." She stuttered softly. Her face rapidly turned red.

"You're awake," Ryou said cheerfully in response while stepping over to stand at her bedside next to Yugi's seated form. "It's good to see that you are all right. Oh, sorry. My name is Ryou Bakura."

"I'm Auri. I…it's nice to meet you too."

'It really is him,' Auri's logic stated in a wondrous tone.

Her inner fangirl, the less polite of two, screeched, "HOLY SHIT, IT'S RYOU!"

'That he is.'

'Dude, since he isn't Bakura, he wouldn't stab us for existing, right?'

'It would be highly illogical, yes.'

'Then we could totally glomp him!'

Logic paused. 'Wouldn't that be getting us off on the _very_ wrong foot?'

'GLOMPAGE NOWZ!'

Double-checking that Ryou was within range, Auri attacked. Half leaping, she sprung across the side of the bed to hug him… and …didn't immediately let go. Ryou stiffened in shock, Yugi gaped, and the inner fangirl squeed happily. After a minute, Auri released the Brit, and settled back on the bed.

"W...what was that?" Ryou asked of her in a dazed tone.

She grinned goofily at him. "I just had to get that out of my system; sorry about your personal space and all. I'll be good now."

He glanced warily at her. "I'll go get something to drink," he said before hurriedly retreating from the room. The door slammed behind him.

"What was that?" Yugi demanded.

She flushed again. "Ah…well…"

Then it clicked, and Yugi's eyes grew wide with horror and comprehension. He pointed at her and drew back slightly against the chair. "You're one of them! The rabid fangirls!"

"You don't have to say it quite like that," she pouted. "Besides, I'm not one of your or Yami's fangirls, only Ryou. Anyway, now that I've glomped him, you don't have to worry about him. I can die a happy woman now.'

He shot her a disbelieving look. "You promise?"

Auri nodded emphatically. "Yeah. I promise. So, how long have I been here? You were kind of interrupted," she said in an effort to hurriedly change the subject away from her fangirlism.

"Right. It's been about three days now, and…"

She coughed. "I've been asleep how long?"

"Ah, three days." He noticed her face paling again. "What's wrong?"

"Oh god. Yugi, my sister! I left her there _three days ago?_ She was with some friends, so she should have been able to get home eventually, but holy crap! And Mom is gonna kill me! She trusted me to look after her, and now I've gone missing? I'm so dead… Wait, I don't have health insurance, how the hell am I going to pay for this?" her voice had taken on a squeaky panicked tone midway through.

Yugi quickly rose from his chair. "Calm down, okay? Mokuba promised to take care of any bills, and your sister was with friends, right? I'm sure she got home okay."

Auri let out a shuddering breath. "Three days?" she echoed again. "Even if those two are taken care of, Mom is still going to kill me. She's got to be freaking out right now. Wait, Mokuba?"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mokuba."

"The one from your world?"

"That's the one."

"And his resources got me papers and are paying my bills here?"

"That's right."

She bit her lip. "But, how would his money from Kaiba Corp even work here in another dimension."

The duelist cringed for an instant. "That's the other thing I meant to tell you. We're not in your world right now, we're in Domino City. My world."

"Wh…" Logic fainted. "Wh...what?"

"We're in Domino."

Auri let out a little squeak, and promptly passed out.

The inner fangirl danced.


	7. Lost But Not Alone

I'M SORRY (hides behind Ryou)! I cannot apologize enough for taking three bloody months to give you this update. The short version of my excuse is: teaching went to heck in a handbasket so to speak, they threw 10 million things at me saying to do them all at once, two of my classes seemed to get the idea that they could treat me like crap and the lack of administrative support didn't help, I eventually had a complete meltdown in planning one day in front of my assistant principal (embarrassing; just bawled…) and then quite a few teachers seemed to be up in arms about the behavior of my students, since then there have been people in and out all the time observing (both to check that I know what I'm doing, I suppose, and to get evidence of the behavior) which has resulted in gaining a few allies in trying to shape the students up such that they will let me actually TEACH (gasp! A novel concept with this bunch.), I've also gotten a great deal of advice (more than I know what do with), and I've since been in the "try it and see if it works" stage. It's improved a bit (no more breakdowns :) ). As for this chapter, I was stranded at a car place after school today without my papers to grade, my books to work on plans, and no wireless to check school email. For once, I had no work. Thus, I wrote this chapter almost all at once today. Thank goodness Christmas break is coming up soon as well. I'll have some actual TIME to do things besides work. Holy cow….

Now, to my readers: THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME AND MY LATENESS OF FAIL! I owe you guys much. When I finally go around to going through all my non-school email backlog over Thanksgiving (what little break I had…) I found reviews and favs, and I was like, "These people are awesome, and I so owe them and update." Well, now you shall finally have it. Granted, I'm going to be so dead at school tomorrow. Curse you having-to-get-up-at-five-in-order-to-get-there-on-time! Mornings, my one true weakness!

Thank you: skaleflapper15, deadlyserenegrace, obsessed-beyond-reason2001, daniel14541, earthluva, animeminion, lyknaoplzthxbai, bluespiritfire1, and egyptiansoul88! Your reviews are a major spark for writing and they cheer me up in these dark days.

New reader list of joy: daniel14541, animeminion, lyknaoplzthxbai, bluespiritfire1, Storm Uchia, Yami Uzi, MadlyInLoveWithMusic, and EgyptianSoul.88.

To SariaHael and Earthluva: your suggestions of pairings to explain to Yami Bakura make me giggle as well. The catch is, how do I do it while keeping Auri's soul in one piece? Hmm… I wonder if there are any times in cannon he's incapacitated….must rewatch anime over coming break now!

To EgyptianSoul.88: ZOMG! Someone whose fic I read actually read mine? Sweet (does a little dance)! Did not expect, but it is very cool. Peoples, if you have not read her "A New Story," then go give it a try. Did I remember to put that on my alerts list? Dunno…I think I first found it before the teaching gig…need to go check list now…

Anywho, please enjoy.

Chapter 7: Lost, But Not Alone

Breathing in the slightly, smoky scent of the city, Auri sighed in relief. It may have been only two days to her, but the smell of mild pollution was almost comforting after all the cleaning chemicals and rubbing alcohol. "I'm glad that's over with," she muttered as she slung the manga laden messenger bag over her shoulder. 'Oh so nice to back in my own clothes again too,' she thought while glancing back at the hospital entrance. She turned back to the city. "So, what now?"

From beside her, Yugi stretched his arms out. "We should get you home as soon as we can," he said.

She fidgeted with the black bag's strap and raised one eyebrow at the teen. "That eager to get rid of me are we?"

"Ah, no!" Yugi shook his head furiously. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"I know you didn't," she replied. Her shoulders slumped slightly. "I was only joking, and I know you meant it because of ….well… I'm sure to have been reported missing by now. Not to mention, my mom must be having kittens…"

"Oh. Sorry." His head dipped a little, and the long, golden bangs hid his eyes. "I sometimes take things a little too seriously," he admitted reluctantly.

Auri hmmed. "You know, I hear that way too often myself."

He peeked at her through the hair. "Huh?"

She gave an embarrassed laugh. "I miss people's jokes a lot," she told him easily with a little shrug at the end. "So, it makes sense people would miss mine too." 'I think they're funny...' "Besides, I get the feeling you got upset because…" She trailed off.

"Because?"

'I really hope I'm not about to get myself into trouble here. Assuming and all that.' "I think it's because you're afraid."

Yugi stared at her.

She flushed slightly. "It…it's just that…in the manga I got the feeling that, aside from Anzu, you never had any friends growing up. It makes sense then, that you'd do everything you can to hold on to the few friends or friendly acquaintances you've got. I know I would; anything's better than being all alone."

Yugi continued to stare.

Her blush deepened. "If I'm totally off base and assuming way too much, you can say something now."

After another pause, Yugi lightly shook his head and looked away. "It's not that you're wrong," he told her quietly. "I just never thought about it." He looked out at the city for a moment before continuing. "You were right about Anzu."

Auri blinked. "Huh?" 'The you-liking-her or…?'

"She really was my only real friend before I solved the puzzle, but I was okay." He smiled softly. "Even if it was only one person, I knew that there was one person who didn't care what anyone thought, and that she'd be my friend no matter what." He looked up at Auri. "So, it was fine."

Before her brain could catch up with her mouth, she asked, "Then why did you wish on the puzzle for friends?"

He flinched. "I…I thought it would be fun…you know…to have guys to hang out with too." His face now red, was still aimed away from her at the city.

She grinned. "Understandable. If I had only guy friends I'd ache for a girl to shopping with myself. You know it was you and not the puzzle that granted the wish, right?"

"What?" he looked up at her confusedly.

She waved dismissively. "Nothing nothing," she insisted. "You want to get lunch before we figure out how to send me home?"

Twenty minutes later, Yugi and Auri were seated at the infamous Burger World with their munchies. 'He wanted to go here? Didn't his alter-ego set a man on fire in this place? Oh well; free food is free.'

They ate their junk food in silence for a little bit before Yugi paused to come up for air. "So, Yami and I went back the shadow realm a couple of times while you were out, and he found the portal that connects our worlds."

"Really?" Her face lit up.

Yugi smiled back at her. "Yep; he says it should be pretty simple to send you back through it too. We already know it connects to a safe place, so we just need to take you back there, and you can simply walk through it."

She let out a short sigh. "That's a relief." 'It's a bummer though,' she thought as she fiddled with her soda. 'I really would have liked to hang out a little…and maybe glomped Ryou some more. He's just too huggable for his own good.' "Would it be possible to…" she started to ask, and then caught herself and stopped.

"What?"

"It's nothing." Auri absently ran one finger around the rim of her glass.

"Then why do you sound so disappointed?" a deeper voice asked.

She startled, and franticly grabbed at her glass to catch it after nearly knocking it over. Regrettably, she still lost half the remaining drink on her hand and the fries. Her eyes flicked up from the glass at the now slightly taller male and upward-swept, golden bangs. "You have got to start warning me when you do that," she complained. "Couldn't you, like, make the puzzle flash as a signal or something?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, so maybe that would be a little clichéd and obvious," she admitted. 'Although that was how it worked in the anime…' She reached over to the napkin basket and grabbed a wad. "Poor soda, an innocent brutally slaughtered by puzzle-boy's sneak attack," she bemoaned while mopping up the liquid.

"Are you always this melodramatic?"

At that, she gave him a wide grin. "Sometimes. Tis fun, Yami. You should try it."

He scoffed. "I'll pass, and you're avoiding the subject again."

She winced inwardly. 'Damn him and his ability to stay on subject…that usually works on people…' "It's not a big deal or anything, but I was kind of wondering if it would be okay to visit sometime."

His gaze softened a little. "I'm afraid not," he replied. "I doubt the portal would stay open forever, and I don't want to run the risk of someone in this world coming after innocents in yours in order to attain information about the future here."

She wilted at that and looked down at her soggy plate. She poked at one of the drier fries. "Oh; that makes sense."

"But," Yugi's lighter voice replied, "We'll still be friends even if we can't see each other, right?"

Auri went silent at that, eying the now violet eyes. 'Friends? We barely know each other… does he…really trust me that easily?' "R-right," she said verbally.

"Yami says we should get going," Yugi told her. "He's pretty sure the portal should be fine, but it would be best if we went ahead and got you home to be safe."

She nodded noiselessly.

After leaving the restaurant, Auri followed Yugi through a series of streets and later through a back alley near a park she found rather familiar. Though she could not place the episode, she was quite certain she'd seen it in Battle City somewhere. Shrugging it off as unimportant, she sped up a little to walk beside Yugi.

"The shadow realm dropped us all the way across town, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah; I think mou hitori no boku was a little surprised too. Usually, we end up right where we entered, but this time we wandered around quite a bit. So, he now thinks the shadow realm might work kind of like our world; that it should be possible to travel to different places. We might even be able to use as a short-cut; there aren't any physical barriers that we've seen yet."

"Just the soul-sucking side effects," she dryly commented.

He effected a sheepish shrug. "There is that to worry about, but, don't worry. Yami said he can use the puzzle to protect you like he did me while we're in there."

"That's good."

He stopped and gave her an odd look. "Auri, you can understand me, right?"

"Obviously; why?"

"I've been speaking Japanese the past five minutes."

There was another long awkward pause. Her inner logic, who had since recovered from the fainting episode a while back, couldn't resist commenting that she'd been having a great many of those of late. "I….you….what?"

"You've been speaking it too, and I thought it was kind of weird since you said before that you thought it was cool I could speak the language. I thought that implied you couldn't…"

"I CAN'T!" she semi-shrieked, heedless of the stares she was now attracting. "Or I couldn't before, so how the hell can I now?"

"You just did," Yugi told her while glancing uncomfortably at the gathering onlookers. "Let's go, Auri." Without further warning, he took her hand and speedily dragged her off. Once they were far enough out of sight, he stopped and let go of her. "Sorry."

"S'okay." 'I was only having a mild panic attack. I mean, speaking Japanese is freaking cool, but if it sounds to me like he's speaking English, and that I think I'm speaking English, then what will happen if someone _actually_ talks to me in my native tongue?' "Hey, Yugi? Say something in English, would you?"

"Like what?" he asked.

"Was that English?" she demanded.

"Y-yes," he stuttered. "Why? What's wrong now?"

Auri all but slumped to the pavement in relief. "Nothing else is wrong," she assured him. "I just wanted to check that whatever messed with my head didn't take my ability to speak my native language with it. I couldn't tell any difference, but at least I can still understand people back home now."

"Ah. It's still odd though."

"Any ideas from Yami?"

Yugi shook his head. "No."

"Hrm... Well, it's not like being bilingual is a bad thing." 'However the hell I got it.' "So, where was the portal again?"

"It's nearby," he looked around to catch his bearings and pointed down a side street. "It's right down here."

"Allrighty then. Let's get this over with then." She followed Yugi down the shaded, deserted street lined with long-closed shops and dusty windows. 'I guess even Domino has it's economic troubles…' Their path ended at an innocuous section of badly cracked concrete in the middle of the sidewalk. Yugi swapped to Yami, again scaring Auri, and the two (and third in a soul room) descended once more into the world of shadows.

"Still creepy," she muttered darkly. Indeed, the shadow realm hadn't changed in the slightest. It was still a dark, endless void full of eerie mist and an unsettling lack of wind and sound. On the upside, she wasn't alone this time. "This is it?" she asked Yami.

"It should be," he replied as he looked back and forth. "Strange."

"What is?"

"The portal was right here. It could not have simply moved."

"Eh?"

He ignored her and focused on the golden weight that hung from his neck. It glowed softly in the dark for a few minutes before his jaw clenched and he released the puzzle to turn and face Auri. "We…have a problem."

"What's wrong, Yami?" she asked.

"The rip in space…it has….somehow healed a great deal faster than it should have."

Something in Auri's gut froze. "What…exactly are you saying?"

"I…I cannot send you home. I'm afraid you are trapped in this world."

Auri fainted again.


	8. Oh Hells No!

To my readers: again, thank you for sticking around despite my frequent leaves of absence. Now, as for the last chapter, yeah, Auri can now randomly speak Japanese. That is kind of Mary-Sue-ish, but I didn't know what other option I had. I already established in the beginning that she couldn't speak Japanese, and then I later realized, "Oh yeah, she's going to be in JAPAN…heh….oops…" I kind of forgot that somehow, and in order for the stuff I planned to work she has to speak the language, so….yeah. I did come up with a reason, but you don't get it for a good while (ties in with original plans). Sorry if her new language thing seemed kind of random. Also, this chapter is rather short; it's setting up for the second arc only.

To my reviewers four (SkaleFlapper15, earthluva, Miss-Berry, EgyptianSoul.88: THANK YOU! You kick ass, and you help motivate me to keep going.

In all honesty, I don't much like this chapter much. I rewrote the dang thing way too many times and then decided, "Forget it!" Too much telling and not enough showing as one of my old professors would say.

Anywho, weather channel says we may get snow tonight, and, should it happen, I'll be hanging out at home watching a certain arc I'm not too fond of compared to others and writing the next chappie. Yeas for stuff actually happening in the next one…

Chapter 8: Oh hells no!

The next week went by in a blur for Auri. Yugi's grandfather had yet to return from his expedition, so it was agreed that she would stay in the guest room at Yugi's until they could find some way to send her home. As for Sugoroku's absence, Auri had her suspicions. She paused in her sweeping of the front porch to think back upon the conversation that had her so worried from the a few days prior.

_"Hey Yugi," she'd asked one afternoon while perched comfortably on his couch, "Where is your grandfather anyway?"_

_ He looked up from his homework on the coffee table. "I'm not really sure," he admitted. "He said he had a secret expedition to go on."_

_ "What?" 'Please tell me he doesn't mean what I think he does.' "And you're not at all worried?"_

_ Yugi shrugged. "He goes off on one expedition or another every so often, and he's always come back safe in a few weeks."_

_ "I…I see." _

"Hey, how long you goin' to sweep that one spot?" a Boston-accent laced voice interrupted her thoughts.

She jumped slightly and laughed sheepishly. "How long have you been there?" Auri asked him.

Jounouchi smiled. "Only a few minutes. You alright?" Jounouchi, much to Auri's relief, had been just as she remembered him from the series thus far. Cheery, protective, loyal, and utterly terrible in school from what Yugi told her. Okay, so the last part wasn't good, but the familiarity was comforting none the less. It meant, if nothing else, she could at least predict his actions to a degree, and that the timeline and people of this world might be closer to the fiction in her world than she thought. She shook her head to clear the thoughts.

"I'm fine," she assured him while waving one hand dismissively, having to remind herself to keep hold of the broom with her other hand. "Just thinking too much again." She had been accused of that a few times already; that much was true. 'But it's not like I can really tell them what it's about mostly. If I did, then I'd wind up fessing up about knowing way more than I let on for this world's future. They're suspicious enough as it is already. Well, with the exception of Jou perhaps.' On the second day of Auri's forced stay, Yugi had at last introduced her to his friends. Granted, he did so under the guise of the-kid-of-one-of-his-grandfather's-friends; his grandpa was well known for having friends the world over, so it wasn't that hard of a story to sell. 'Poor Yugi felt really guilty about it though…'

_ Auri glanced at Yugi as the doorbell chimed softly. "Were you expecting guests?" she asked while continuing to try and scrub the stubborn rice off of the pot in the sink._

_ "Not that I know of," he replied. He finished drying the plate he held quickly and sat it in the cupboard. "I'll be right back."_

_ "Kay kay." She finished her battle with the Dish of Doom and moved on to a plate as his footsteps padded down the hall and she heard the door in the shop open. _

_ "Hey man!" a cheery male voice with an…odd accent for the area… said. _

_ Auri dropped the plate she'd been washing. Thankfully, it had already been in the sink and thus did not break. 'Shit. That would be Jounouchi.'_

_ "What are you guys doing here?" Yugi asked, a faint bit of nervousness evident in his tone._

_ "What? We can't visit a friend?" another male voice asked. Honda was Auri's guess._

_ There was a strangled noise of pain, and then a feminine voice that could only be Anzu's said, "What he means to say is that we're a little worried about you. The last couple days it feels like you've been avoiding us. You just disappear as soon as the bell rings at school."_

_ Auri winced. _

_ "I…I'm not avoiding you guys," Yugi protested. "It's just…" He trailed off unable to finish._

_ "It's what?"_

_ "I…"_

_ Auri set the dish back in the water and dried her hands on her skirt before leaving the kitchen, walking down the hall, and stepping in to the shop area. As she entered, Anzu's eyes widened and Yugi turned around having heard her approach. "Sorry; I suppose it's kind of my fault," Auri said quietly. _

_ "Who are you?" Jounouchi asked._

_ "This is Auri-chan," said Yugi as he jumped in. "She's um…"_

_ "I'm visiting for a while," Auri supplied. 'Which is partially true…'_

_ "Yes. That," he agreed while fervently nodding. "She's the granddaughter of one of Grandpa's friends," he explained. _

_ 'Not a bad cover story.' "Yeah, and this is my first time in Japan, so Yugi's been sticking around to help. Goodness knows I get lost in my own hometown enough as it is; another country? Yeesh."_

_ "Cool. Where are you from?" Honda asked._

'It could have gone better perhaps, but I wouldn't write the whole thing off as a total loss. Anzu's been pretty cool since the whole my-stay-is-temporary thing, not a threat to her pursuit of Yami that way, and she helped me go out and find some clothes. I will have to pay Yugi back eventually though… At least she hasn't made a friendship speech yet. I may have to gouge out my own ears should that happen. Wait, _**can**_ you gouge out your ears? I know it works for eyes, but…'

"Yo, Auri-chan?"

Auri jumped as Jou interrupted her thoughts again. "Sorry, what'd I miss this time?" she asked sheepishly.

He shook his head. "Man, you've gotta stop doin' that. Anyway, look at these!" he crowed happily while displaying five small strips of paper dramatically in his hand.

She blinked. "What are they?" she asked flatly. 'Your hand is kinda covering up most of them.'

A very wide smile split his face. "Tickets, Auri-chan! I just won a contest for five tickets to India!"

Auri dropped the broom. "Wh...what?" 'No! Oh hells no! It was **four** in the series, not five, and it was the worst arc ever. Hell, most fans don't even consider it canon. It made even less sense than the last episode Sasami Magical Girls Club.' She swallowed hard. "That's nice, Jou-kun." 'Damnit, Auri. Remember the honorifics!' "You guys will have fun, I'm sure." 'There's no way in the seven layers of hell they're dragging me into that.'

His smile dropped slightly. "Eh? I want you to come with us too."

"What? Why?"

"Cause we've got five tickets, and you're our friend too."

That made her stop. "I'm…your friend?"

"Of course," Jou said, rolling his eyes.

"Didn't I just meet you guys?" she protested weakly while glancing down at the fallen broom.

He waved it off. "Yeah, well, friends are friends. You coming or not? It'll be fun; free vacation, Auri-chan!"

'Just like that? I'm in? It…doesn't make any sense. Yugi was the same way. All I did was want to help, and suddenly I've got the friend title; do they really trust me that easily? No wonder the villains trick them so easily. Still…' She looked back at Jou's hopeful expression. 'It's nice…to be accepted.' "Okay."

Jou whooped. "I knew you'd wanna come."

'Auri, you idiot.'


	9. Return and Teaser

Okay, so it's been...like a year and a half now? Hmm... so it has. As much as I complain about other authors never finishing their fics, I turned around and did just that.  
At any rate, I'm back.

For reals.

Stuff went certifiably nuts in teaching year one, and I just finished my second year of teaching. My will to write just...evaporated. It suddenly hit me...that there seemed no real point in continuing; I was no longer enjoying it. Or any writing for that matter. It's been a love of mine since I was 10; for it to just "poof" scared the crap out of me. I attempted to justify it as freeing up time to work on lesson plans and school stuff, but it wasn't true. A year of hell passed, crazy insomnia appeared, and year two was suprisingly better. Then, one of my students had to do something incredibly stupid.

He convinced me to start attending the school's gamer club. Officially, I was just a co-sponser, but really I was digging my old yu-gi-oh cards from their ten-year storage and playing the game again. I couldn't help but find it odd that the other teachers don't want to join in on whatever activities their clubs were doing (asked around). They just stood on the sidelines. They complained about having to do the afterschool duties, but I was having a ball with it. As pathetically obvious as it might seem, it didn't really hit me till then that I should be always enjoying my job. As awful as year one was, I forgot why I was really doing this. Putting myself through hell physically and emotionally. I cared, but I had been cowed by those who stood above me on the food chain. "Do this, do that, this is terrible, why aren't you doing this my way?" So, mid-way through year two I gave certain people a very polite "fuck you" and started teaching how I'd wanted to all along. Teacher observations, job re-contracting, what the principal thought of my style be damned!

It was right about this time (revelation time) that the insomnia episode became severe. I went five straight days without sleeping at all. Not kidding. I called in sick on day five.

Messed around on internet while skipping and failing at sleeping. Found old fanfic profile and fic. Reread it. Similar realization concerning writing; that happy place for creation of the craft and all. Spent most of the day writing that and short stories detailing mis-adventures in teaching (ex: seagulls in hotel rooms). Finally able to sleep for a while after that...don't really understand why.

So...I may have been sitting on the ninth chapter and bits of the following chapters for a few months.

Oops.

I could really use a beta by the way.

On vacation right now, so stealling sis' comp to write this. Really wish I'd remembered to pack my flash key.

For now, I will provide you with some snippets of events to come.

Oh yeah, those evil EOG tests? My kid's scores were nearly double this year compared to last year.

TAKE THAT ASSHOLES! Muahahahaha! Ahem.

Snippet time: 

Snippet 1:  
She raised an eyebrow and conciously folded her arms behind her back, the duel disk out of view. "So, you know it's the Rare Hunters hacking the system, but you let the illegal players continue anyway?" Auri asked.  
"Why wouldn't I? I want the god cards held by the hunters, and blocking any of their members might stop the cards from appearing," Seto replied. He paused, eyeing both Yami and Auri for a long moment. "But then, you already knew that." This, he clearly addressed to Auri.  
"Eh?" Auri blinked and looked at Yami who simply stared at Seto.  
"Just as you knew where Yugi's friends were being held, when and where the warehouse fire would occur, and who Noah was from the very beginning," Seto continued a cold, tight tone. "Who are you working for?"  
"What? But I'm not...Ya-Yugi! A little help?" She turned to him, her hands now clasped in front of her chest, but Yami wouldn't look her in the eye.  
Instead, he continued to hold Seto's gaze before fainlty nodding and at last facing her. "He's right; you have shown intimate knowledge of the future, far more than should be possible even for you. You lied to us." 

Snippet 2:

The crackling and snapping of the fire seemed real enough to Auri. It was never entirely clear what this world was in the anime, and it seemed like animators went on crack in the middle of it anyway. 'In retrospect, I really should have paid more attention. Might have helped now.'

Yami popped the spent Hinotama out of the monster-summon-thing and stuck it in a pocket on his jacket. "It seems that all of the special stones contain montsers or magic cards. They hav e limits to their use though, so we should seek out as many as we…" He trailed off. Yugi, in astral form, also stared.

"The woods! The woods! The woods are on fire! We don't need no water; let the motherfuckers burn!" Auri sang as she attempted to dance near the dying woods.

Yami looked to Yugi.

Yugi half shrugged. "I've learned to not ask."

Snippet 3:

The lack of Offical Ominous Music did nothing to detract from the sudden shaking in Auri's bones. Across the field spread a large green circle until it encircled both players with an eerie glow. Two other lines spread out from the opponents side and bounced off the sides twice to form a star shape, and the air became heavy and thick.

"Oh no," Anzu cried. "Jou, we've gotta do something!" She made to run for the circle, but Jounouchi held her back.

"You haven't been in one of those yet," he gently told her. "There's nothing we can do. The barrier doesn't let people in or out till it's done."

'No kidding.' Auri swallowed hard as the enemy monsters took on the same green symbol and powered up. 'Now what?'

"I end my turn," declared the hooded man. Back straight, relaxed grip on his cards, and a slick smirk on one end of his lips.

Auri glanced to Anzu and the others, but it did nothing to ease the tremors in her hands. It was quite clear, looking out at the lone dancing fairy on her field.

She was alone.

PS: I owe lots of reviewer feedback (yes, I know), I'll see to that in chapter nine. Check back here on Monday (will be back then). To those who remain, thank you.


End file.
